Used phone buyback prices surge five- to six-fold as storage chips fetch premium

What happened

It has been reported that used phone buyback prices in China briefly jumped five to six times, a spike that drew attention across consumer and tech circles. The claim first circulated on IT Home (IT之家) and was followed up by a report on China Central Television (CCTV, 中国中央电视台), which said the surge was concentrated in a subset of models rather than a broad market phenomenon. Previously discarded handsets that would fetch a few dozen yuan have reportedly been selling for over a hundred yuan in recent weeks.

Why prices rose

CCTV reported the main causes: certain phones contain storage chips that can be removed and reused, and demand for those components has surged. The AI-driven digital economy has increased appetite for high-end chips, shifting production priorities and constraining output of some memory and storage components. Rising material costs have also been cited. Importantly, CCTV noted the spike is already easing — buyback prices have begun to fall again, with daily declines reported.

Scale and implications

The China Circular Economy Association (中国循环经济协会) estimates China generates more than 400 million discarded phones annually, with a cumulative stock exceeding 2 billion devices. Yet about 54.2% of phones are kept idle by consumers and only roughly 5% enter professional recycling or trade‑in channels. That imbalance limits formal supply and can magnify price swings when salvageable components become valuable.

Geopolitics, market risks and consumer advice

This episode comes amid global semiconductor supply tensions and shifting export controls that have reshaped access to chips worldwide, making secondary markets for components more consequential. Will informal recovery and ad‑hoc dismantling become a permanent supply patch? There are risks: fraud, unsafe dismantling, and further erosion of regulated recycling channels. IT Home and CCTV both cautioned consumers to weigh their options and avoid following short‑term trends blindly when deciding whether to sell old devices.